Vehicle camera cleaning system

ABSTRACT

Embodiments provide vehicle camera cleaning systems used for cleaning foreign matter off of a camera lens, including, for example, a water flow nozzle arranged to eject water flow, an air nozzle arranged to eject air, and a central controller used to control the water flow nozzle and air nozzle. In certain embodiments, a plurality of sensing devices are used for sensing the conditions of the camera lens, such as an infrared water drop sensor, a temperature sensor, a camera sensing sensor, and the like. The central controller may determine whether there are water drops, ice, snow, or other foreign matter on the lens based on signals received from the plurality of sensing devices, and may control the air nozzle and the water flow nozzle to clean the camera lens based on the foreign matter present.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of Non-Provisional U.S.application Ser. No. 14/883,605, filed Oct. 14, 2015, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/133,991, filedMar. 16, 2015, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/150,848,filed Apr. 22, 2015, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of manufacturing of electricvehicles, and particularly relates to lens cleaning technology ofelectric vehicle cameras.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Current electric vehicle cameras, for example, backup cameras, do notinvolve cleaning technology or equipment capable of dealing with cameralens contamination resulting from water drops, dust and even such severeconditions as ice and snow.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above, the present invention relates to camera cleaningsystems, such as camera cleaning systems for vehicles.

Certain aspects of the present invention relate to vehicle cameracleaning systems used for cleaning foreign matters off on a camera lens.In some embodiments, the vehicle camera cleaning system may include awater flow nozzle, for example, arranged near the outer side of thecamera lens surface and used for removing the water drops and/or foreignmatters on the camera lens through ejected water flow. Additionally oralternatively, the vehicle camera cleaning system may include an airnozzle, for example, arranged near the outer side of the camera lenssurface and used for removing water drops and/or the foreign matters onthe camera lens through ejected air. One or more controllers, such ascentral controller having a processing unit with one or more processors,may be used to control the water flow nozzle and the air nozzle.

According to additional aspects described herein, a vehicle cameracleaning system may include one or more sensing devices used for sensingthe conditions of the camera lens, for example, an infrared water dropsensor, a temperature sensor, and/or a camera sensing sensor, etc. Insuch embodiments, the central controller may be used to determinewhether there are water drops, ice, snow, and/or other foreign matter onthe lens based on signals sensed by the plurality of sensing devices,and to control the air nozzle and the water flow nozzle to clean thecamera lens based on the different types of foreign matters detected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be further described in detail with referenceto the accompanying drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the components of a vehiclecamera cleaning system, in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating the physicalstructures of certain components within a vehicle camera cleaningsystem, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating of a water drop sensor of avehicle camera cleaning system, in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are illustrative working state diagrams for a water dropsensor of a vehicle camera cleaning system, in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a water flow nozzle of a vehicle cameracleaning system, in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are illustrative working state diagrams for an airbag ofa vehicle camera cleaning system, in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating one or more processes of operatinga vehicle camera cleaning system, in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an example block diagram for a computing system upon whichvarious features of the present disclosure may be provided.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the vehicle camera cleaning systems of the presentinvention will be described below with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of various embodiments of the present invention. It willbe apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of thepresent invention may be practiced without some of these specificdetails. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shownin block diagram form.

The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiments only, and is notintended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of thedisclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodimentswill provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description forimplementing an exemplary embodiment. It should be understood thatvarious changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elementswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the appended claims.

Specific details are given in the following description to provide athorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will beunderstood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments maybe practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits,systems, networks, processes, and other components may be shown ascomponents in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodimentsin unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits,processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown withoutunnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Also, it is noted that individual embodiments may be described as aprocess which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flowdiagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchartmay describe the operations as a sequential process, many of theoperations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition,the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminatedwhen its operations are completed, but could have additional steps notincluded in a figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function,a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination can correspond to a return of thefunction to the calling function or the main function.

Various embodiments of the present invention will be described belowwith reference to the drawings constituting a part of the description.It should be understood that, although terms representing directions areused in the present invention, such as “front”, “rear”, “upper”,“lower”, “left”, “right”, and the like, for describing various exemplarystructural parts and elements of the present invention, these terms areused herein only for the purpose of convenience of explanation and aredetermined based on the exemplary orientations shown in the drawings.Since the embodiments disclosed by the present invention can be arrangedaccording to different directions, these terms representing directionsare merely used for illustration and should not be regarded aslimitation. Wherever possible, the same or similar reference marks usedin the present invention refer to the same components.

The term “computer-readable medium” includes, but is not limitednon-transitory media such as portable or fixed storage devices, opticalstorage devices, and various other mediums capable of storing,containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data. A code segment orcomputer-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function,a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or anycombination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middlewareor microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessarytasks may be stored in a computer-readable medium. A processor(s) mayperform the necessary tasks.

Various techniques (e.g., systems, circuits, methods, non-transitorycomputer-readable storage memory storing a plurality of instructionsexecutable by one or more processors, etc.) are described hereinrelating to vehicle camera cleaning systems used for cleaning foreignmatter off of a camera lens, including, for example, a water flow nozzlearranged to eject water flow, an air nozzle arranged to eject air, and acentral controller used to control the water flow nozzle and air nozzle.In certain embodiments, a plurality of sensing devices are used forsensing the conditions of the camera lens, such as an infrared waterdrop sensor, a temperature sensor, a camera sensing sensor, and thelike. The central controller may determine whether there are waterdrops, ice, snow, or other foreign matter on the lens based on signalsreceived from the plurality of sensing devices, and may control the airnozzle and the water flow nozzle to clean the camera lens based on theforeign matter present.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a module diagram is shown of a vehicle cameracleaning system in accordance with certain embodiments. As shown in FIG.1, in various different embodiments a vehicle camera cleaning system mayinclude a central controller 101, a water drop sensor 103, a temperaturesensor 104, a foreign matter image sensor 105 (which may also bereferred to as a camera sensing sensor), a driving input system 106, aheater 107, a water pump 108, an air blowing motor 109, a water flownozzle 110, and/or an air nozzle 111. In this example, the centralcontroller 101 may be the core of the system 100, and a CPU 102 andother circuit components and modules (omitted from the figure) may beinstalled in the central controller, for example, an I/O port, a BUS andthe like. The central controller 101 may be connected with the waterdrop sensor 103, the temperature sensor 104, the foreign matter imagesensor 105, and/or the driving input system 106, and may receive datasensed by the above sensors and data or instructions input by thedriving input system. The central controller 101 also may be connectedto the heater 107, the water pump 108, and/or the air blowing motor 109,and according to the data transmitted by the sensors and the inputsystem, the central controller 101 may determine the contamination stateof a camera lens (e.g., by determining whether water drops and/or otherforeign matter objects are present on the surface of the camera lens),and transmit control instructions to the heater 107, the water pump 108,and/or the air blowing motor 109 according to different detectionsignals and different states of the system 100. The heater 107 may beconnected to the water pump 108, which may be connected to the waterflow nozzle 110. The water pump 108 may eject (or spray) water from thewater flow nozzle 110 to clean the camera lens, and the heater 107 mayheat the water flow to be ejected. The air blowing motor 109 may beconfigured to eject (or expel) air stored in a rubber airbag (see FIG.6A and FIG. 6B) from the air nozzle 111 to clean foreign matter such aswater drops and other objects off of the surface of the camera lens.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a schematic diagram is shown including certainphysical structures of components in the vehicle camera cleaning systemin accordance with certain embodiments. In order to clearly illustratecomponents in the vehicle camera cleaning system, in FIG. 2, therelative position relationship of the components might not correspond tothe actual installation position relationship thereof. As shown in thefigure, the two nozzles, namely the water flow nozzle 110 and the airnozzle 111, may be arranged proximate to (or near) the outer side of thevehicle camera lens 201. The outlets of the water flow nozzle 110 and/orthe air nozzle 111 may face the vehicle camera lens 201 and mayrespectively eject high speed water flow and air flow onto the lens, toclean such foreign matters on the lens as water drops, dust, ice andsnow and the like. An infrared emitter 202 and an infrared receiver 203may be arranged on the inner side of the vehicle camera lens 201, andthe infrared emitter 202 and the infrared receiver 203 may form thewater drop sensor 103 in certain embodiments. Although FIG. 2 shows thatthe infrared emitter 202 and the infrared receiver 203 are located onthe two lateral sides of the camera lens, it should be understood thatthe purpose of this figure is merely to show the infrared emitter 202and the infrared receiver 203 to prevent the infrared emitter and theinfrared receiver from being shielded by the camera lens in the visualangle of the figure. Thus, in various other embodiments, the infraredemitter 202 and the infrared receiver 203 may be actually arranged onthe inner side of the camera lens (e.g., covered by the camera lens),and an example of one potential installation position relationship ofthe infrared emitter and the infrared receiver with respect to thecamera lens may be seen in FIG. 3, discussed below. The vehicle cameracleaning system in this example may further include a foreign matterimage sensor 105 used for determining whether there are foreign matterson the lens surface of the camera by judging whether a set of imagestaken by the vehicle camera is continuous. If the images taken by thecamera are discontinuous (or unclear), it may be determined that thereare (larger) foreign matters on the camera lens 201. To the contrary, ifthe images taken by the camera of the foreign matter image sensor 105are continuous (or clear), then the central controller 101 may determinethat there is no foreign matter present on the camera lens.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a structural schematic diagram is shown of awater drop sensor in accordance with certain embodiments. As shown inthe FIG. 3, an infrared emitter 202 and infrared receiver 203 may bearranged on the inner side of the camera lens 201, whereby the infraredemitter 202 may be used for emitting infrared rays to the camera lens201, the infrared receiver 203 may be used for receiving infrared raysreflected by the camera lens 201. In some embodiments, the camera lens201 may be made of high-clarity glass, for example, having areflectivity on the infrared rays higher than 96% (or even 100% in somecases), but if foreign matter such as water drops, etc., are attached tothe glass surface, certain infrared rays may be refracted at the outerside of the camera lens 201, thereby resulting in loss of the reflectedinfrared rays. Therefore, by calculating the amount of the infrared raysreceived by the infrared receiver 203, either by the water drop sensorand/or by the central controller 101, the system may determine whetherthere are water drops attached to the glass surface. Specific referencemay be made to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

FIG. 3 further shows the temperature sensor 104, which may be designedand configured to sense the temperature of the camera lens 201, and totransmit a signal to the central controller 101. Such temperature datamay be used by the central controller to estimate the environmenttemperature, in order to determine whether there is a need to use heatedwater flow to clean the camera lens 201.

Referring now to FIGS. 4A and 4B, working state diagrams are shown ofthe water drop sensor in accordance with certain embodiments. In theseexamples, FIG. 4A corresponds to a scenario where there are no waterdrops on the camera lens, and FIG. 4B corresponds to a scenario wherethere are water drops on the camera lens.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the infrared emitter 202 may emits infrared rays410 onto the camera lens 201, and the infrared receiver 203 may receivethe infrared rays 410 reflected by the camera lens 201. If there are nowater drops on the outer side of the glass, after the infrared rays arerefracted and reflected by the glass, compared with the amount of theinfrared rays emitted by the infrared emitter, the amount of theinfrared rays received by the infrared receiver may be relatively high,and in some cases may be 100%. To the contrary, if there are water dropson the outer side of the glass, due to the refraction of the waterdrops, the amount of the infrared rays reflected back to the infraredreceiver may be reduced, such that compared with the amount of theinfrared rays emitted by the infrared emitter, the amount of theinfrared rays received by the infrared receiver may be relatively (e.g.,at least lower than 100%), and accordingly it may be determined thatthere are water drops on the outer side of the camera lens 201, as shownin FIG. 4B.

As shown in FIG. 4B, the infrared emitter 202 may emit the infrared raybeam 410 to the camera lens 201, and the infrared receiver 203 mayreceive infrared rays 410 reflected by the camera lens 201. In thiscase, since there are water drops 404 on the outer side of the cameralens 201, the water drops may cause some infrared rays 420 to berefracted, and then, the amount of the infrared rays received by theinfrared receiver 203 is less than the amount of the infrared raysemitted by the infrared emitter 202, resulting in loss of some rays.When the amount of the received infrared rays, in comparison with theamount of the emitted infrared rays, is higher than a predeterminedthreshold (or even 100% in the case of no refraction loss), it may bedetermined that there are no water drops and/or other foreign matter onthe camera lens 201. However, if the received amount is measured to besmaller than the predetermined threshold (e.g., less than 100% or otherrelatively high threshold), it may be determined that there are waterdrops and/or other foreign matter on the camera lens 201. In someembodiments, the infrared ray loss caused by water drops of differentsizes on the lens 201 may be simulated and measured multiple times formultiple different sizes of water drops, and may be stored by thecentral controller 101. In such cases, the water drop sensor 103 may beused not only to determine whether there are water drops on the lensaccording to different loss rates, but also may determine the sizes ofthe water drops. Using the determined sizes of water drops, the centralcontroller 101 may adjust the amounts of water flow and air respectivelyejected from the water flow nozzle 110 and the air nozzle 111 based onthe determines sizes of water drops and/or other foreign matter.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a structural schematic diagram is shown of awater flow nozzle in accordance certain embodiments. As shown in FIG. 5,the water flow nozzle 110 may be connected to a water pump 108, whichmay be connected to a windshield wiper water tank 510. Water pumped outfrom the windshield wiper water tank 510 may be ejected from the waterflow nozzle 110 to flush the camera lens 201. A heater 107 may befurther arranged therein for heating the water flow entering the waterpump 108, and the water pump 108 and the heater 107 either may becommunicatively connected with the central controller 101 to receiveactivation and/or deactivation instructions from the central controller101 to start or stop working. When both the water pump 108 and theheater 107 are activated, heated water may be ejected (e.g., sprayed)from the water flow nozzle 110, which may be used for cleaning frozenice and snow on the camera lens 201 in winter.

Referring now to FIGS. 6A and 6B, working state diagrams are shown of arubber airbag in accordance with certain embodiments. In these examples,FIG. 6A corresponds to a scenario where the rubber airbag is notcompressed by a piston, and FIG. 6B corresponds to a scenario where therubber airbag is compressed by a piston.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the air flow nozzle 111 may be just opposite to thecamera lens 201. The air flow nozzle 111 may be connected to the rubberairbag 610, which may be made of an elastic material. When the rubberairbag 610 is compressed, the air in the rubber airbag 610 may beejected (e.g., expelled) from the air flow nozzle 111 to blow away suchforeign matters as water drops or dust on the camera lens 201. The speedat which the rubber airbag 610 may determine the speed at which the airis expelled onto the camera lens 201, and thus a rapid compression maybe advantageous in some cases to produce a more forcefulejection/discharge of air on the camera lens 201. When the compressionforce is withdrawn, the rubber airbag 610 may recover to the expansionstate to take in air for preparing for next ejection of high speed airflow. In some embodiments, the rubber airbag 610 may be connected to apiston 613, such that when the piston 613 moves towards the rubberairbag 610, the piston may press the rubber airbag 610. The piston 613may be connected with a crank 612, and the crank 612 may be driven bythe air blowing motor 109 to rotate, so that the crank 612 may drive thepiston 613 to move back and forth. The air blowing motor 109 may beconnected with the central controller 101 and configured to receiveactivation and/or deactivation signals, so that it may start whenreceiving the instruction of the central controller 101, thereby drivingthe piston 613 to compress the rubber airbag 610 and thus to quicklyeject air from the air flow nozzle 111, as shown in FIG. 6B.

As shown in FIG. 6B, when the central controller 101 determines thatsome foreign matter (e.g., water drops, dust, snow, ice, etc.) may beattached to the camera lens 201, and thus there is a need to start theair flow nozzle 111, the central controller 101 may send a startinginstruction (can be starting current) to the air blowing motor 109.Thus, the air blowing motor 109 may drive the crank 612, thereby drivingthe piston 613 to compress the rubber airbag 610, so as to eject airfrom the air flow nozzle 111.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a flow diagram is shown illustrating an exampleprocess of operating a vehicle camera cleaning system, in accordancewith certain embodiments. In step 201, a driver may send an instructionto the central controller 101 through the driving input system 106, tostart the vehicle camera cleaning system. In step 202, the water dropsensor 103 may be activated, and step 203, the foreign matter imagesensor 105 may be activated.

In step 204, the central controller 101 may receive one or moredetection signals sent by the water drop sensor 103. If the centralcontroller 101 determines that the amount of the received infrared raysin comparison with the amount of the emitted infrared rays is smallerthan a set percentage (for example, smaller than 98%, 99%, 100%, oranother threshold percentage value), then it may determine that thereare water drops on the camera lens 201 and thus may enter step 206. Tothe contrary, if the central controller 101 determines that the amountof the received infrared rays in comparison with the amount of theemitted infrared rays is substantially equal to or greater than the setthreshold percentage, then it may determine that there are no waterdrops on the camera lens 201 and may end the operation.

In step 205, the central controller 101 may receive a detection signalsent by the foreign matter image sensor 105. If the detection signalindicates that an image (or set of images) taken by one or more camerasof the sensor 105 is discontinuous, then the central controller 101 maydetermine that foreign matter is present on the camera lens 201, and mayenter step 206. To the contrary, if the detection signal indicates thatthe image (or set of images) taken by the camera is continuous, then thecentral controller 101 may determine that there are no foreign matterson the camera lens 201 and may end the operation. In some cases, asingle image may be evaluated for continuity by comparing portions ofthe image to adjacent portions of the image, thereby determining whetherthe image is a uniform image of the camera lens. In other cases,multiple images taken at different times may be compared to one anotherto evaluate continuity over time. For example, a recent image taken ofthe camera lens 201 may be compared to a previous image of the samecamera lens 201 taken from the same angel, to determine if new foreignmatter is now present on the camera lens 201 that was not present in theearlier image.

In step 206, if it is determined in step 204 that there are water dropson the camera lens 201, and/or if it is determined in step 205 thatthere is foreign matter on the camera lens 201, then central controller101 may control the air blowing motor 109 to start, causing the piston613 to compresses the rubber airbag 610, and the air nozzle 111 toejects air to blow away the water drops and/or other foreign matter.When step 206 is completed, general light and small water drops orforeign matters on the camera lens 201 may be cleaned.

In step 207, after step 206 is performed, steps 202 to 205 may berepeated in some embodiments, in order to determine whether there areresidual water drops and/or foreign matters on the camera lens 201 evenafter activating the air blowing motor 109. If not, the operation may beended. If so, step 208 may be is executed, as described below.

In step 208, the temperature sensor 104 may sense the environmenttemperature of the camera lens 201. If the central controller 101determines that the environment temperature is larger than or equal to apreset threshold temperature, then step 209 may be executed. If theenvironment temperature is smaller than the threshold temperature, thenstep 212 may be executed. Different threshold temperatures may be usedunder different conditions. For example, a threshold temperature may be0° C., because when the environment temperature is smaller than 0° C.,water drops on the camera lens surface 201 may freeze.

In step 209, the central controller 101 may start the water pump 108 toenable the water flow nozzle 110 to eject high-speed water to clean theresidual water drops and/or foreign matters on the camera lens 201.

In step 210, after step 209 is performed, the central controller 101 maystart the air blowing motor 109, causing the air nozzle 111 to againexpel air to blow away the residual water drops and/or foreign matters.

In step 211, after step 210 is carried out, steps 202 to 205 may berepeated again, to determine whether there are residual water dropsand/or foreign matters on the camera lens 201 even after activating thewater pump 108 and once again activating air blowing motor 109. If not,the operation is ended. If so, then step 212 may be executed.

In step 212, the central controller 101 may start the heater and thewater pump 108, thus causing the water flow nozzle 110 to ejecthigh-speed heated water to clean the residual water drops and/or foreignmatter on the camera lens 201. This step may be carried out under thecondition that if thicker ice and snow cover on the camera lens 201 incold winter, and the ice and snow may need to be thawed by the heatedwater flow.

In step 213, after the step 212 is performed, the central controller 101may once again start the air blowing motor 109, causing the air nozzle111 to expel air to blow away the residual water drops and/or foreignmatters. In some embodiments, the air nozzle 111 may be used for blowingaway the residual water drops after each water flow cleaning, so thatthe camera lens 201 may be completely cleaned.

In step 214, after step 213 is performed, steps 202 to 205 may berepeated to determine whether there are residual water drops and/orforeign matter on the camera lens 201. If not, the operation may beended. If so, then steps 212 to 214 may be repeated until there are noresidual water drops and/or foreign matter on the camera lens 201.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example block diagram for a computer systemor other computer device 800 which may be integrated into and/oroperatively connected to the vehicle camera cleaning system 100 asdescribed herein, as well as any other components or subcomponentsdescribed above. One or more computer systems or other computer devices800 may control one or more aspects of the electric devices and/orcomponents described above. For example, one or more computer devices800 may be used to implement the central controller 101, as well as theindividual sensors 103-105 and other components 107-111. Accordingly,any or all of these components may include some or all of the featuresdescribed below in reference to computer device 800. In some examples,the computer system or other computer devices 800 may include a tabletcomputer, personal data assistant, smartphone, gaming console, and/or adedicated computer system for controlling the electric vehicle. Anyparticular one of the previously-described computing devices may bewholly or at least partially configured to exhibit features similar tothe computer system 800.

The computer device 800 is shown comprising hardware elements that maybe electrically coupled via a bus 802 (or may otherwise be incommunication, as appropriate). The hardware elements may include aprocessing unit with one or more processors 804, including withoutlimitation one or more general-purpose processors and/or one or morespecial-purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips,graphics acceleration processors, and/or the like); one or more inputdevices 806, which may include without limitation a steering wheel, aclimate control button or other user input receiving buttons, and/or thelike; and one or more output devices 808, which may include withoutlimitation a presentation device (e.g., a computer screen), a GPS,and/or the like.

The computer system 800 may further include (and/or be in communicationwith) one or more non-transitory storage devices 810, which maycomprise, without limitation, local and/or network accessible storage,and/or may include, without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, anoptical storage device, a solid-state storage device, such as a randomaccess memory, and/or a read-only memory, which may be programmable,flash-updateable, and/or the like. Such storage devices may beconfigured to implement any appropriate data stores, including withoutlimitation, various file systems, database structures, and/or the like.

The computer device 800 might also include a communications subsystem812, which may include without limitation a modem, a network card(wireless and/or wired), an infrared communication device, a wirelesscommunication device and/or a chipset such as a Bluetooth™ device,802.11 device, WiFi device, WiMax device, cellular communicationfacilities such as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), W-CDMA(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), LTE (Long Term Evolution),etc., and/or the like. The communications subsystem 812 may permit datato be exchanged with a network (such as the network described below, toname one example), other computer systems, and/or any other devicesdescribed herein. In many embodiments, the computer system 800 willfurther comprise a working memory 814, which may include a random accessmemory and/or a read-only memory device, as described above.

The computer device 800 also may comprise software elements, shown asbeing currently located within the working memory 814, including anoperating system 816, device drivers, executable libraries, and/or othercode, such as one or more application programs 818, which may comprisecomputer programs provided by various embodiments, and/or may bedesigned to implement methods, and/or configure systems, provided byother embodiments, as described herein. By way of example, one or moreprocedures described with respect to the method(s) discussed above,and/or system components might be implemented as code and/orinstructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor within acomputer); in an aspect, then, such code and/or instructions may be usedto configure and/or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device)to perform one or more operations in accordance with the describedmethods.

A set of these instructions and/or code might be stored on anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as the storagedevice(s) 810 described above. In some cases, the storage medium mightbe incorporated within a computer system, such as computer system 800.In other embodiments, the storage medium might be separate from acomputer system (e.g., a removable medium, such as flash memory), and/orprovided in an installation package, such that the storage medium may beused to program, configure, and/or adapt a general purpose computer withthe instructions/code stored thereon. These instructions might take theform of executable code, which is executable by the computer device 800and/or might take the form of source and/or installable code, which,upon compilation and/or installation on the computer system 800 (e.g.,using any of a variety of generally available compilers, installationprograms, compression/decompression utilities, etc.), then takes theform of executable code.

It will be apparent that substantial variations may be made inaccordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardwaremight also be used, and/or particular elements might be implemented inhardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.),or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as networkinput/output devices may be employed.

As mentioned above, in one aspect, some embodiments may employ acomputer system (such as the computer device 800) to perform methods inaccordance with various embodiments of the disclosure. According to aset of embodiments, some or all of the procedures of such methods areperformed by the computer system 800 in response to processor 804executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions (which mightbe incorporated into the operating system 816 and/or other code, such asan application program 818) contained in the working memory 814. Suchinstructions may be read into the working memory 814 from anothercomputer-readable medium, such as one or more of the storage device(s)810. Merely by way of example, execution of the sequences ofinstructions contained in the working memory 814 may cause theprocessor(s) 804 to perform one or more procedures of the methodsdescribed herein.

The terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readable medium,” asused herein, may refer to any non-transitory medium that participates inproviding data that causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion.In an embodiment implemented using the computer device 800, variouscomputer-readable media might be involved in providing instructions/codeto processor(s) 804 for execution and/or might be used to store and/orcarry such instructions/code. In many implementations, acomputer-readable medium is a physical and/or tangible storage medium.Such a medium may take the form of a non-volatile media or volatilemedia. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical and/ormagnetic disks, such as the storage device(s) 810. Volatile media mayinclude, without limitation, dynamic memory, such as the working memory814.

Example forms of physical and/or tangible computer-readable media mayinclude a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or anyother magnetic medium, a compact disc, any other optical medium, ROM,RAM, and etc., any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other mediumfrom which a computer may read instructions and/or code. Various formsof computer-readable media may be involved in carrying one or moresequences of one or more instructions to the processor(s) 804 forexecution. By way of example, the instructions may initially be carriedon a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer. A remotecomputer might load the instructions into its dynamic memory and sendthe instructions as signals over a transmission medium to be receivedand/or executed by the computer system 800.

The communications subsystem 812 (and/or components thereof) generallywill receive signals, and the bus 802 then might carry the signals(and/or the data, instructions, etc. carried by the signals) to theworking memory 814, from which the processor(s) 804 retrieves andexecutes the instructions. The instructions received by the workingmemory 814 may optionally be stored on a non-transitory storage device810 either before or after execution by the processor(s) 804.

It should further be understood that the components of computer device800 can be distributed across a network. For example, some processingmay be performed in one location using a first processor while otherprocessing may be performed by another processor remote from the firstprocessor. Other components of computer system 800 may be similarlydistributed. As such, computer device 800 may be interpreted as adistributed computing system that performs processing in multiplelocations. In some instances, computer system 800 may be interpreted asa single computing device, such as a distinct laptop, desktop computer,or the like, depending on the context.

EXAMPLES OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS

In a first example embodiment, a vehicle camera cleaning system forcleaning water drops and/or foreign matters on a vehicle camera lens(201), may comprise: a water flow nozzle (110), arranged near the outerside of the camera lens (201) and used for removing the water dropsand/or foreign matters on the camera lens surface (201) through ejectedwater flow; an air nozzle (111), arranged near the outer side of thecamera lens (201) and used for removing the water drops and/or foreignmatters on the camera lens (201) through ejected air; and a centralcontroller (101), used for controlling the water flow nozzle (110) andthe air nozzle (111) to start working.

A second example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the first example embodiment, further comprising: a water dropsensor (103), the water drop sensor (103) is communicatively connectedwith the central controller (101) for starting working under the controlof the central controller (101) so as to sense whether there are waterdrops on the camera lens (201) and send a sensing signal to the centralcontroller (101); and camera sensing sensor (105), the camera sensingsensor (105) is communicatively connected with the central controller(101) for starting working under the control of the central controller(101) so as to sense whether there are foreign matters on the cameralens (201) and send a sensing signal to the central controller (101).

A third example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the second example embodiment, wherein the water drop sensor(103) is arranged at the inner side of the camera lens (201).

A fourth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the third example embodiment, wherein the water drop sensor(103) comprises an infrared emitter (202) and an infrared receiver(203), the infrared emitter (202) is used for emitting infrared rays tothe camera lens (201), and the infrared receiver (203) is used forreceiving infrared rays reflected by the camera lens (201), so thatwhether there are water drops on the camera lens (201) can be determinedaccording to the percentage of the amount of the received infrared raysin comparison with the amount of the emitted infrared rays.

A fifth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the second example embodiment, wherein the camera sensingsensor (105) determines whether there are foreign matters on the cameralens (201) according to whether an image taken by the camera iscontinuous.

A sixth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the second example embodiment, further comprising: atemperature sensor (104), the temperature sensor (104) iscommunicatively connected with the central controller (101) for startingworking under the control of the central controller (101) so as to sensethe environment temperature of the camera lens (201) and send a sensingsignal to the central controller (101).

A seventh example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the second example embodiment, further comprising: a rubberairbag (610), wherein the air nozzle (111) is connected to the rubberairbag (610), and when the rubber airbag (610) is quickly pressed, theair in the rubber airbag (610) is quickly ejected out from the airnozzle (111).

An eighth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the seventh example embodiment, further comprising: an airblowing motor (109), the air blowing motor (109) is connected with acrank (612), the other end of the crank (612) is connected with a piston(613), and the piston (613) can press the rubber airbag (610), whereinthe air blowing motor (109) is communicatively connected with thecentral controller (101) for starting working under the control of thecentral controller (101) so as to drive the crank to rotate and drivethe piston (613) to move back and forth to enable the piston (613) topress or release the rubber airbag (610) to eject or suck in air,thereby removing the water drops and/or foreign matters on the cameralens (201).

A ninth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the second or the sixth example embodiments, furthercomprising: a water pump (108) and a windshield wiper water tank (510),wherein the water pump (108) is connected with the water flow nozzle(110), wherein the water pump (108) is communicatively connected withthe central controller (101) for starting working under the control ofthe central controller (101) so as to pump water flow from thewindshield wiper water tank (510) and eject the water flow from thewater flow nozzle (110), thereby removing the water drops and/or foreignmatters on the camera lens (201).

A tenth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the ninth example embodiment, further comprising: a heater(107) for selectively heating water flow flowing through the water flownozzle (110).

An eleventh example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the tenth example embodiment, wherein if the centralcontroller (101) judges that the environment temperature of the cameralens sensed by the temperature sensor (104) is lower than a presettemperature threshold, the central controller (101) controls the heater(107) to start working to heat the water flow flowing through the waterflow nozzle (110).

A twelfth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the tenth example embodiment, wherein the following executionsteps are stored in and performed by the central controller (101): step(201): the vehicle camera cleaning system is started; step (202): thewater drop sensor (103) starts working; step (203): the camera sensingsensor (105) starts working; step (204): the central controller (101)receives a sensing signal sent by the water drop sensor (103) in step(202), and if the central controller (101) judges that the amount of thereceived infrared rays in comparison with the amount of the emittedinfrared rays is smaller than a set percentage, it determines that thereare water drops on the camera lens (201) and enters step (206), and ifthe central controller (101) judges that the amount of the receivedinfrared rays in comparison with the amount of the emitted infrared raysis substantially equal to the set percentage, then it determines thatthere are no water drops on the camera lens (201) and ends theoperation; step (205): the central controller (101) receives a sensingsignal sent by the camera sensing sensor (105) in step (203), and if thecentral controller (101) judges that the image is discontinuous, itdetermines that there are foreign matters on the camera lens (201) andenters step (206), and if the central controller (101) judges that theimage taken by the camera is continuous, it determines that there are noforeign matters on the camera lens (201) and ends the operation; andstep (206): if it is determined in step (204) that there are water dropson the camera lens (201) and/or in step (205) that there are foreignmatters on the camera lens (201), the central controller (101) controlsthe air blowing motor (109) to start, the piston (613) presses therubber airbag (610), and the air nozzle (111) ejects air to blow awaythe water drops and/or the foreign matters.

A thirteenth example embodiment may include the vehicle camera cleaningsystem of the twelfth example embodiment, wherein the followingexecution steps are further stored in and performed by the centralcontroller (101): step (207): after the step (206) is carried out, step(202) to step (205) are repeated to determine whether there are residualwater drops and/or foreign matters on the camera lens (201); if not, theoperation is ended; if yes, step (208) is executed; step (208): thetemperature sensor (104) senses the environment temperature of thecamera lens (201), if the central controller (101) judges that theenvironment temperature is higher than or equal to a thresholdtemperature, step (209) is executed; if the environment temperature islower than the threshold temperature, step (212) is executed; step(209): the central controller (101) starts the water pump (108), and thewater flow nozzle (110) ejects high speed water flow to clean theresidual water drops and/or foreign matters on the camera lens surface(201); step (210): after the step (209) is carried out, the centralcontroller (101) starts the air blowing motor (109), and the air nozzle(111) ejects air to blow away the residual water drops and/or foreignmatters; step (211): after the step (210) is carried out, step (202) tostep (205) are repeated to determine whether there are residual waterdrops and/or foreign matters on the camera lens (201); if not, theoperation is ended; if yes, step (212) is executed; step (212): thecentral controller (101) starts the heater (107) and the water pump(108), and the water flow nozzle (110) ejects high speed heated waterflow to clean the residual water drops and/or foreign matters on thecamera lens (201); step (213): after the step (212) is carried out, thecentral controller (101) starts the air blowing motor (109), and the airnozzle (111) ejects air to blow away the residual water drops and/orforeign matters; step (214): after the step (213) is carried out, step(202) to step (205) are repeated to determine whether there are residualwater drops and/or foreign matters on the camera lens (201); if not, theoperation is ended; if yes, step (212) to step (214) are repeated untilthere are no residual water drop and/or foreign matter on the cameralens (201).

Although the present invention has been described with reference to thespecific embodiments shown in the drawings, it should be understood thatthe charging system and the charging method provided by the presentinvention can have a variety of variations without departing from thespirit, scope and background of the present invention. Those of ordinaryskill in the art should be still aware that, parameters in theembodiments disclosed by the present invention can be changed indifferent manners, and these changes shall fall within the spirit andscope of the present invention and the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle camera cleaning system, comprising: anair nozzle arranged proximate to a camera lens of the camera cleaningsystem, the air nozzle being configured to expel air onto the cameralens; a water drop sensor comprising an infrared emitter and an infraredreceiver, wherein the water drop sensor is configured to generate andtransmit water drop sensor information indicating a percentage ofinfrared rays emitted by the infrared emitter that are received by theinfrared receiver; a central controller comprising a processing unitincluding one or more processors, the central controller configured tocontrol the operation of the air nozzle, wherein the central controlleris further configured to: receive the water drop sensor information fromthe water drop sensor; determine whether there are water drops on thecamera lens based on the water drop sensor information; and in responseto determining there are water drops on the camera lens, generate aninstruction to activate the air nozzle to expel air onto the camera lensto remove the water drops.
 2. The vehicle camera cleaning system ofclaim 1, further comprising: a foreign matter image sensorcommunicatively connected to the central controller, the foreign matterimage sensor comprising a sensor camera, and wherein the foreign matterimage sensor is configured to detect foreign matter on the camera lensusing the sensor camera, and to transmit a foreign matter detectionsignal to the central controller in response to detecting foreign matteron the camera lens; and, wherein the central controller is further suchthat the determination whether there are water drops on the camera lensis further based on receiving the foreign matter detection signal. 3.The vehicle camera cleaning system of claim 2, wherein the water dropsensor is arranged on the inner side of the camera lens.
 4. The vehiclecamera cleaning system of claim 3, wherein the water drop sensor isconfigured such that: the infrared emitter is configured to emitinfrared rays onto the camera lens; the infrared receiver is configuredto receive infrared rays reflected by the camera lens; and the waterdrop sensor information is generated by comparing the amount of infraredrays received by the infrared receiver in comparison to the amount ofthe infrared rays emitted by the infrared emitter.
 5. The vehicle cameracleaning system of claim 2, wherein the foreign matter image sensor isconfigured to detect foreign matter on the camera lens based on adetermination of whether a set of images captured by the sensor camerais continuous.
 6. The vehicle camera cleaning system of claim 1, furthercomprising: a heater configured to heat a water flow; a temperaturesensor communicatively connected to the central controller, thetemperature sensor being configured to generate environment temperatureinformation indicating an environment temperature of the camera lens andtransmit the environment temperature information to the centralcontroller; and wherein the central controller is further configured to:determine whether the environment temperature is lower than a thresholdtemperature value in response to receiving the environment temperateinformation; and generate an activation instruction to activate theheater in response to determining the environment temperature is lowerthan a threshold temperature value.
 7. The vehicle camera cleaningsystem of claim 1, further comprising: a rubber airbag connected to theair nozzle, such that when the rubber airbag is compressed, air isexpelled by the air nozzle.
 8. The vehicle camera cleaning system ofclaim 7, further comprising: an air blowing motor connected to a firstend of a crank, wherein a second end of the crank is connected to apiston configured to compress the rubber airbag, wherein the air blowingmotor is communicatively connected to the central controller andconfigured to receive activation instructions from the centralcontroller, and wherein upon activation the air blowing motor isconfigured to drive rotation of the crank, thereby driving the pistonback and forth to enable the piston to compress and release the rubberairbag to expel or take in air.
 9. The vehicle camera cleaning system ofclaim 1, further comprising: a heater communicatively connected to thecentral controller, the heater communicatively connected to the centralcontroller and configured to receive activation instructions from thecentral controller.
 10. A method of using a vehicle camera cleaningsystem to clean a camera lens in the vehicle, the camera cleaning systemcomprising an air nozzle arranged proximate to the camera lens, the airnozzle being configured to expel air onto the camera lens, a water dropsensor comprising an infrared emitter and an infrared receiver, thewater drop sensor being configured to generate and transmit water dropsensor information indicating a percentage of infrared rays emitted bythe infrared emitter that are received by the infrared receiver, and acentral controller comprising a processing unit including one or moreprocessors, the central controller configured to control the operationof the air nozzle, the method comprising: receiving, by the controllerof a vehicle camera cleaning system, the water drop sensor informationfrom the water drop sensor; determining, by the controller of thevehicle camera cleaning system, whether there are water drops on thecamera lens based on the water drop sensor information; in response todetermining there are water drops on the camera lens, generating aninstruction to activate the air nozzle to expel air onto the camera lensto remove the water drops.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thevehicle camera cleaning system further comprises a foreign matter imagesensor communicatively connected to the central controller, the foreignmatter image sensor comprising a sensor camera, and wherein the foreignmatter image sensor is configured to detect foreign matter on the cameralens using the sensor camera, and to transmit a foreign matter detectionsignal to the central controller in response to detecting foreign matteron the camera lens, and wherein the determination whether there arewater drops on the camera lens is further based on receiving the foreignmatter detection signal.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein determiningwhether there are water drops on the camera lens comprises: comparingthe amount of infrared rays received by the infrared receiver incomparison to the amount of the infrared rays emitted by the infraredemitter.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein detecting foreign matter onthe camera lens, by the foreign matter image sensor, is based on adetermination of whether a set of images captured by the sensor camerais continuous.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the vehicle cleaningsystem further comprises a heater configured to heat a water flow, and atemperature sensor communicatively connected to the central controller,the temperature sensor being configured to generate environmenttemperature information indicating an environment temperature of thecamera lens and transmit the environment temperature information to thecentral controller, and wherein the method further comprises:determining, by the controller, whether the environment temperature islower than a threshold temperature value in response to receiving theenvironment temperate information; and generating, by the controller, anactivation instruction to activate the heater in response to determiningthe environment temperature is lower than a threshold temperature value.